Typical casinos include tens of thousands of square feet of gaming space that's home to hundreds or thousands of electronic gaming machines (EGMs), such as slot machines, video poker machines, video lottery terminals, video keno machines, and/or video bingo machines. For instance, the Bellagio resort in Las Vegas, Nev., has 116,000 square feet of gaming space that includes 2,300 EGMs.
To maximize the quantity of EGMs (and other entertainment offerings, such as table games) in the gaming space, casinos typically arrange the EGMs in densely packed rows. EGMs in a particular row are usually separated by a few inches. Rows of EGMs are often spaced apart just far enough so one patron can walk between the rows while others are playing the EGMs. Many casinos also line their perimeter walls with tightly spaced EGMs. Some casinos create banks of EGMs in circular arrangements throughout the gaming space. FIG. 1 shows one example of part of the gaming space of a casino including several rows of EGMs.
Each EGM is operable to enable a player to play a wagering game. A typical wagering game includes a primary game, and certain wagering games include one or more bonus games. Countless different types of primary and bonus games exist, meaning that a given casino likely offers hundreds or even thousands of different wagering games on its EGMs. Also, each EGM typically has one of several different denominations, such as 1¢, 2¢, 5¢, 25¢, $1, or $5. Some EGMs are multi-denominational, and enable the player to choose his desired denomination from a set of several different denominations.
The sheer size of a casino's gaming space, its complex and densely packed layout, the large quantity of EGMs, the variety of different wagering games offered on those EGMs, and the variety of different available EGM denominations—not to mention the hundreds or thousands of people in the casino—make it difficult and time consuming for a patron to locate a particular EGM the patron wants to play. For instance, a patron may visit a casino for the first time and want to play her favorite 25¢ denomination TRIPLE PLAY DRAW POKER game (TRIPLE PLAY DRAW POKER is a registered trademark of IGT Corporation). The patron has to wander around the casino and inspect each EGM she walks past to try to find that particular EGM among the hundreds or thousands of different EGMs distributed across tens of thousands of square feet of gaming space. This often frustrates the patron because in many cases she has to waste a significant amount of time searching for her desired EGM, and in some cases may never find it (or find it occupied). This also frustrates the casino operators because the patron is wandering around the casino rather than playing her favorite EGM.
One proposed solution to this problem involves guiding a patron to her desired EGM using a global positioning system (GPS), such as via a casino-provided mobile device. This solution fails because GPS lacks the necessary granularity to guide the patron exactly to her desired EGM. GPS is typically accurate within 5-15 meters (16.4-49.2 feet). This may suffice when directing someone to a restaurant off of a highway, but it's not useful to direct a patron to an EGM located within a few feet of several other EGMs. With only 5-15 meter accuracy, the GPS can't direct the patron exactly to her desired EGM. It can at best direct the patron to the general vicinity of her desired EGM, but at that point the patron must resume the search herself by scouring every EGM in the area. The fact that GPS doesn't work well indoors in certain instances compounds this problem.
There is a continuing need to develop new and improved ways to direct patrons exactly to their desired EGMs (or other locations within a casino) that solve this problem.